What was the worst skating interview?

What do you think were the worst televised figure skating interviews? My all-time worst commentary moment occurred at the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Canadian Brian Orser had just skated his long program and received his marks. He realized that he had finished second to American Brian Boitano - a heartbreaking defeat in his home country.

David Santee, commentating, shoved a microphone in Orser's face and said (to paraphrase) "Brian, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you received a 6.0 for artistic impression. The bad news is that you finished second. How do you feel?"

UGH! How in heck to you think Brian felt, David? What an idiotic, insensitive question! (IMHO) Orser managed to be gentlemanlike and gave a polite response, but he probably felt like decking Santee.

The NBC interview with A&P after they won gold at the Olympics. The woman had a comment about how quiet (read: unimpressed), the crowd was during their program. Peizerat handled the question with class, but Anissina looked like she wanted to take a swing at the woman.

ANY of the interviews conducted by Lisa Guerro (sp?) - whenever I watch my tape of last year's worlds I automatically press "fast forward" the moment she appears. I thought her comments vapid at best (and could she have found more ill-fitting jackets anywhere? Is Dolly Parton her role-model??)

Also, I thought the camera-work @ Dortmund (at least that for the ABC feed) was just terrible - just two of many examples of the producer's/cameramen's ineptitude, they botched Divakawa's Ina during her freeskate and then Sasha's during the ex. I just love a good Ina, and still feel ripped off...

Lisa Guerrero, last year's Worlds, with Sasha Cohen, who had just botched the long program. Lisa says something like, "Wow, that was really bad," and Sasha says something like, "Yeah, I hoped to do better," and Lisa says, "Back to you, Terry."

IMHO, the worst interviews are those where the press blames the skaters when they think that the results were wrong. I read that, after the Israeli dance team got the controversial bronze at Worlds in '02, a reporter asked Galit Chait "how much did you pay the judges", and similar comments were made to Michelle Kwan after SA in Oct of '01, when the press thought the gold should have gone to Sarah Hughes. I do not mean to start a re-hash on who should have gotten the ice dance bronze (or SA gold); I only wish to distinguish between "the results were wrong -- the skater must have done something to get that result" that Kwan and the Israeli team got as opposed to the "the results were wrong, but the skaters are innocent and it is the judges that f***** up" after the pairs mess in SLC>

I think a lot of the interviews during SLC surrounding the pairs crap were in bad taste. I mean, they're all working for teh same network... do they HAVE to ask the same 3 questions? Jamie, David, Elena, and Anton were all so great about not losing their cool... but NBC took advantage of Elena and Anton... and *can't think of his name, he thinks he's Matt Lauer half the time* were quite rude...

Rosie O'Donnel never got her wish to speak with teh pair that was "screwed" out of the gold... and I think one of the main reasons was because the "Queen of Nice" (more like teh queen of CRUDE) said that she'd wished that the skate blade that had hit Elena had sidelined her longer (actually I think it was closer to she wished Elena wasn't around anymore) Jay Leno's "Cheaties" box with Elena and Anton box also was totally out of line

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Also, I thought the camera-work @ Dortmund (at least that for the ABC feed) was just terrible - just two of many examples of the producer's/cameramen's ineptitude, they botched Divakawa's Ina during her freeskate and then Sasha's during the ex. I just love a good Ina, and still feel ripped off...

Acutally, I heard the feed was really bad everywhere, not just ABC. People who saw the live feeds from other countries kept commentating on the bad feed they got, and some even complained to Eurosport who replied that they were not the one responsible for the feed. So if we Americans had to be ripped off with bad camera-work, at least the rest of the world suffered with us, .

Lisa Guerrero, last year's Worlds, with Sasha Cohen, who had just botched the long program. Lisa says something like, "Wow, that was really bad," and Sasha says something like, "Yeah, I hoped to do better," and Lisa says, "Back to you, Terry."

eeeexactly. No, it really annoys me when sports reporters go up to athletes who may have had a disappointing performance, put a microphone in his/her face, and ask them stupid questions like "You placed second, and everyone was expecting you to win. How do you feel?"

I need not say any more.

P.S. I think that's how Lisa approached SC...I don't think she said to her "That was bad"...if she did, then WOW. Get her off immediately.

I remember one year at COR? When Sarah and Sasha skated. Sarah did much better than Maria B, and I think Sasha did just as good as MB, and the interviewer was saying things to get them to say they weren't judged fairly. They handled it well, but it was an obvous set up.

In a way, this thread is a bit redundant, as for the life of me, I cannot recall a single GOOD post competition interview...simply because there's usually nothing to say. I find that most skaters just wind up rehashing what Dick & Peggy already commented on during their performance..."Well, I did well on my triple salchow, but my camel spin was a bit wobbly blah blah blah..." :boohoo:

ANY of the interviews conducted by Lisa Guerro (sp?) - whenever I watch my tape of last year's worlds I automatically press "fast forward" the moment she appears. I thought her comments vapid at best (and could she have found more ill-fitting jackets anywhere? Is Dolly Parton her role-model??)

Yes, she is awful. Usually the interviews at skating events are terrible. Where do they find these people? I wish Dick Button would do more interviews. I loved Lesley Visser's interviews when she covered skating. She usually didn't know what she was talking about, but she was very high energy and hilarious and her hair was always out of control.

At SLC 2002 after the pairs competition was over, NBC completely ignored the winning pair and interviewed only the second place finishers. The interviewer encouraged them (Jamie) to cry more and complain about the results, when the proper thing to do would have been to interview both pairs and be sensitive while asking questions.

For those of you who don't like Guerrero (who IMO did a fine job), I have to let you know that the whole 2 second Cohen interview wasn't as it appeared. If any of you had watched the re-telecast on ESPN a week or whenever later, you would have seen that interview actually went on for over a minute. It was ABC who edited the interview on their telecast, and I agree, it was strange.. but it was nothing Lisa did!

At SLC 2002 after the pairs competition was over, NBC completely ignored the winning pair and interviewed only the second place finishers. The interviewer encouraged them (Jamie) to cry more and complain about the results, when the proper thing to do would have been to interview both pairs and be sensitive while asking questions.

Vash

This is the one I was going to mention. I don't remember her name -- a woman with shoulder-length black hair -- but she had a plastic smile and did all the rinkside interviews for NBC in SLC.

Immediately after the Pairs controversy, NBC showed a few seconds backstage before cutting to commercial. This woman, not realizing the camera was on her, was not smiling her plastic smile any more; she was impatiently telling Jamie Sale where to stand so they could get the best shot. She did not give a toss that Jamie was openly weeping and holding David at the time. I don't think Jamie even knew she was there.

The dream of a lifetime dashed? Get your butt in front of this camera, then you can weep. You're our drama tonight. Don't cry now, wait 'til we're rolling tape.

I didn't know she had encouraged Jamie to cry more, but it doesn't surprise me.

But then, all sideline media interviews are awful. I don't even know why they bother.